Remember the post with the three paintings?  Or at least knock-off prints of paintings canvas?  One really is a real painting, the other two are prints on canvas.  Well, I took one of them, squared it up nice and got THIS out of it!  I couldn't be happier with the end result for my first try at a market bag.  This guy is big enough to carry a dozen ears of corn, 3 onions, 6 tomatoes, head of lettuce AND that fantastic sour dough bread the Mennonite women make at our local farmers market.  I'll bet it would even hold a bunch of fresh cut flowers, a jar of local honey, a gift of handmade jewelry for a loved one AND a dozen cookies.  

This bag even got my husband's stamp of approval.  Now we need to come up with a name for this little division of TygerLily.  Got any good ideas worth sharing?  If you do, try to get the name Bonnie worked into it somewhere.  I have my reasons.

Thanks for looking and ENJOY this wonderful weekend!!

I just found an idea (how I wish it were my own) for recycling Altoid Mint boxes.  Of course, me being me, the idea will get kicked up a couple of notches and will be a new product in the JournalJunction line on Etsy.  So everyone, PLEASE don't throw those tins away because I will use, use, and USE them!!!

Thank you Better Homes and Gardens for the inspiration - and the ability to take your basic idea and spin it around a little.  YeeeeeeHa!

After doing NOTHING constructive last night (shame on me) I figured this morning should be a 'get back on track' morning.  So after completing a few small tasks the other eyewear banners got brought out and had their pictures taken.  I hope the ideas in my head will work with some of these.  If they don't, I'm not out much, just have to go back to the drawing board is all.  :)  Take a look at the fun vinyls and fabrics that are itching to get played with......

So please follow along the upcycling process with me.  Full week of my real job, but watch out because there's a 3-day weekend coming up!  I see a lot of Law & Order and a sewing machine in my near future.  HA!

Get creative and have some fun - live out loud, and please color outside the lines.

I know, it's been a couple of weeks since my teaser on how a discontinued Oakley eyewear banner could possibly be reworked.  Well, after many ideas (most that just wouldn't work) this is the final product.  And to be honest, it really didn't come out too bad!  Just don't know what I'm going to do with it now.  :)  Any ideas???  HELP!  Someone NEEDS to take this off my hands!!!

Had a super charged visit to Hobby Lobby yesterday and here's the goodies the came from a 20 minute turbo shop.........

And here are a couple things I listed in the shop this week...........

Thank you all for looking.  I'm trying to stay busy and out of trouble.  You know how I can get.  :)

So get out there, get creative and have a wonderful holiday weekend.

The Finale.........  This bag reminds me of a girls' strappy top, and it made me smile when it was complete and I set it up to photograph.  Thinking maybe the 10 hours of construction on this was honestly worth it!  

So now it's time to get out some yarn and sit with Bill.  I wonder what we'll watch, Hitler or food?  I get the TV at 8 for the finale of Celebrity Apprentice.  It's a fair trade.

Have a wonderful evening everyone - and do something for someone - sure makes you feel good about life.

Weekend Rundown:

Australian Order accepted and shipped:  Check
Michael Miller Pink French Postcard Portfolio:  Done and Listed
Michael Miller Blue French Postcard Portfolio:  Done (not listed)
Poky Little Puppy fabric art portfolios:  3 completed (none listed)

All that brings me to this!  I think I've overdone it a little as I'm sure this is NOT what my co-worker really wants.........

OK, so you can see that this thing is as big as my CHAIR! I do believe I've overdone it.  But this is going to be one awesome tote bag when it's completed.  There are at least fourteen zillion pockets and cubbyholes inside of it.  Once it's completed, there will be a silk hydrangea flower stuck into one of the seams (I purposely left a 'buttonhole' in one area).

Anyhow, back to the sewing room for me, now that the 24 layers of that bag are now securely put together.  I will have to think of a different type of hobo for my friend.  How could I have been so off on what she wanted?  Oh, well.  Back to the drawing board.  But that's sometimes the most fun - the planning part.

Now go get creative already!  :)

This has really been a fairly productive day!  For an unexpected WHOLE day off (now I work Saturday though) there has been a ton of sewing going on.  Here is a large port that hopefully an Etsy client will pick up - if it meets up to what she ordered.

My buyer is the boss, so I'm keeping my finners and toes crossed.  Let's hope this one is sold! 

Happy crafting and get creative out there.  :)

Dealt with an elephant of a headache yesterday, but when it finally eased up my brain went into overload.  The ideas, thoughts, projects, time elements..... everything decided to dump into my head all at once.  Hence, no sleep until 3 this morning when I finally fell asleep on the couch watching a Law & Order show.  Thankfully.  :)  I even made a cup of tea - didn't work.

So this is the crocheted dishcloth that got started and finished after midnight.  This morning was when I realized what will happen to a trio of these that are now on the planning deck.  When you struggle to sleep, can't hear the radio program you have on because your dear one snores through every other sentence of the story (giggle) a gal just picks up what is closest to her and that was the cone of natural colored cotton and a hook.   And this was the result.

I haven't posted any photos on here yet of the scarves that will be a year long project.  Here are four of them that have been crocheted so far.  Two are complete and the other two needs ends woven in still.  After doing fringe on the one, that was the deciding factor in picking other designs that have NO fringe.  Hated it!  :) 

If anyone else is interest in doing scarves for the Winter Special Olympics, just click on over there to see the official colors of Red Heart Yarn and four designs that can help get you started:  2 knit and 2 crochet.  I didn't pick any of them, but that's just me.  After my original purchase of 3 red/3blue skeins, it still looks like I haven't made a dent in the yarn yet.

The large hobo bag is finally cut out.  Nothing like picking a project that has about $40 worth of material to it.  This will be one awesome bag when it's done.  Vogue is not something I use often, but this was THE bag I wanted to do and after reading the instructions over and over and yes, OVER again, it has finally stuck in my head what this design is all about and WOW!  It is very very cool.  This is a commissioned job, but if she isn't happy with it, I'm not sweating it at all just because it really is that neat a design.  Someone will want it - maybe me!?!?!  HA

And last but definitely not least is the decorator fabric I found while shopping with my daughter and grandson the other day - and HALF OFF!  This popped up out of the corner of my eye and knew I had to have it to do something with.  The picture doesn't do the color justice at all as it's really a brownish olive color.  As one of the pillows on my couch (where I finally slept) need recovering pretty badly, this will be WAY cool to use for the living room.  If there's any left over it sure could get put into a lining of a makeup bag or ditty bag.  Didn't even think about it being hard to sew with all the pleats, but that's okay. 

So now that my brain in back to functioning after nearly a month being on some sort of creative hiatus, let the creative life get back to where it was before.  Maybe now it will even be better!  Who knows!

So get up, get out, get creative - happy Saturday!  And be watching for more posts as the weekend progresses.

Weird title to this post, but when I look at what got done, and what WILL get done, it just reminded me of the Karate Kid movie.  To get anywhere creatively, you must make messes before organization can happen........  Hence this photo.......

With the weather acting out of control all week, I just knew Bill's plans of starting to clear out our 'storage' unit called the garage would get messed with.  But when I got home from getting a cut and color and a little shopping and mailing done this is what I found!  He's got a good start on it, and now when he's done having lunch and I'm done blogging, we'll BOTH get out there and get at least 1/4 of it completed today.  And let me tell you, that is HUGE!  When we left our 2800 sq ft home, and 8000 sq ft business, we tried cramming all our STUFF in this little garage.  FAIL!  So for over 2 years, it has sat untouched.  So what treasures will we find today?  Who knows!!!  :)  See anything in there you want?  Make me an offer!  HA

So here is an update on everything else that is going on around here.....

This is the shipment we got yesterday from Fabric.com that contained the Amy Butler fabric for my special order large portfolio set.  The brown/pink/green floral and dots are what she picked. 

This is where the bags from Joann's always seem to end up - on a chair.  But wait till you see the pretty stuff I got!  Oh, and of course I used two coupons to get the basics in that right hand bag - go through that stuff like water around here.

Is this NOT the prettiest stuff you've ever seen?  When all this got put together at Joann's it screamed at me HOBO BAG with a big a** flower on it!  The colors are divine and even the gals at the cutting table remarked how fun it will turn out.

This will be for a girlfriend at work who wants to give it as a gift.  Hope she approves!

Went to the front door to see if my package from China was here yet, but nothing there.  Decided to hit the mailbox anyway, even though I don't have the evil taxes stamped yet to mail, just to get that dreaded part of the day over.

And there was my package from China!!!  Look at these beautiful purse closures!!!!  Can you tell I'm excited? 

And to prove I'm not always working or shopping, here is a pic of the three hat special order from another gal at work.  See!  All but one flower is crocheted and then just a lot of sewing them all on and placing the leaves where they need to go.  Can you tell they're caps?  Upside down and all?

And to end my writing today, I wanted to share with you a special card I got in the mail this week from Donna, my sister down Florida way.  I'd cleaned out some stuff and found a few embossing dies that we just mailed off to her because she is so good at this stuff - and LOOK WHAT SHE DID with one of the designs?  How cool is that?  She's the best and think I'll hang on to that one.  :) 

Until another day - I will sign off and get to work helping in the garage.  I just know there's treasures out there.........  now go get CREATIVE!